Richard Smith
Richard William Smith, OLM, MC (February 9, 1919 - November 1, 1999) was a Rhodesian soldier who served in World War II and later emigrated to England after Rhodesia's transition to Zimbabwe. Early life and family The Smiths, originally a prominent Cape Town family, had established themselves in Rhodesia when Roland Smith (1865-1947), a British South Africa Company volunteer, took part in the Pioneer Column which established Fort Salisbury in 1890. One of Roland's sons, Roger (1892-1976) moved from Salisbury in 1911 to the fledgling town of Umtali, where Richard was born in 1919. Inspired to serve in the military by his grandfather and the Rhodesian volunteers who trained and paraded near his town, Richard Smith joined the Rhodesia Regiment in 1935 at the age of 16, falsifying his documents in order to enlist. In 1937, he was one of just a few of his company selected to undergo officer training in Salisbury, which he completed in 1937, becoming a Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion, Rhodesia Regiment. Military service World War II Even before the British Empire's declaration of war on Nazi Germany on September 1, 1939, Rhodesia had been mobilizing for war. The 1st Battalion, Rhodesia Regiment, camped in Salisbury, trained for combat deployment. However, by early 1940, it was decided that the regiment would not be deployed intact so as to forestall a disaster caused by high casualties to a national unit. Lieutenant Smith and his company were sent to augment the 1st Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps, then serving in the western desert. Joining the 7th Support Group, 7th Armoured Division in Egypt in April 1940, the Rhodesians and the British began preparing for the possibility of war with the Italian Empire. On June 10, war was declared between the two countries. No immediate action was taken, though for the next few months Lieutenant Smith and the Rhodesians of the KRRC launched multiple raids on the Italian positions across the Egypt-Libya border. In September, the Italians launched their invasion of Egypt in Operation E, capturing a portion of the country. The Commonwealth forces prepared a counterattack, which began in December 1940 with Operation Compass. Smith and his men, with the rest of the 7th Armoured Division, attacked to contain the Italians at Sofafi, protecting the British northern flank in the Battle of Sidi Barani. They captured Fort Capuzzo in their drive west towards Bardia, pursuing the retreating Italian forces. The 7th Division crossed into Libya, and with the other Commonwealth forces, laid siege to Italian bases in the Battle of Bardia. Smith led his men in the advance which cut off the Bardia garrison fro the Italians in Tobruk. Smith personally led the capture of many Italian outposts in Libya during this campaign. Continuing the advance, the Rhodesians attacked and took Sceleidima, west of Msus, during the Battle of Beda Fomm in February 1941. As the Italians withdrew further, the Support Group moved on to take Soluch and continued to keep pressure on the enemy. By the end of the month, the Italian forces in the western desert had been all but defeated. In March 1941, Germany responded to the Italian defeats by deploying a force of its own, which counterattacked the Allies in Operation Sonnenblume. By April, the Commonwealth forces were in retreat across Libya, and Lieutenant Smith and his men covered the withdrawal against the German advance near Derna, eventually retreating themselves. In June, the Allies started Operation Battleaxe, an attack against the Axis forces on the Libyan frontier to relieve the Siege of Tobruk. Lieutenant Smith and his men advanced, covering the flank of the Support group. The attack got off to a good start but quickly bogged down as the Rhodesians struggled to take Hafid Ridge from the German defenders. Soon it became clear that the attack could not succeed and the 7th Division began to withdraw. Pursed by the Germans, Smith's unit fought a number of delaying actions near Sidi Omar as they retreated beyond the Frontier Wire. The operation had been a costly failure. In November 1941, after a major reorganization of the Commonwealth forces in the western desert, Operation Crusader was launched. Kicking off the surprise attack, the Rhodesians and the rest of the division attacked and captured Sidi Rezegh Airfield. They assaulted north to link up with the Tobruk garrison, but this was repulsed by the Germans, who promptly counterattacked the 7th Division at Sidi Rezegh. Fighting was fierce, and Smith's Rhodesians fought to hold on to the airfield for as long as they could before being forced to retreat. Threatened with envelopment by the German forces, they fell back to the south, pursued by the Germans. However, the Germans failed to destroy the division, and Smith's men took part in a counterattack which caught the enemy near Bir el Chleta and slowed their advance significantly around the Tobruk corridor. In December, they attacked the Gazala Line, and forced the German and Italian forces to withdraw after two weeks of fighting. By the middle of the month, they were at Bir Halegh el Eleba. Crusader had, for the time, eliminated the Axis threat to the Suez Canal. The lull in the fighting would not last long, and in January 1942 the Germans attacked again, taking Benghazi and forcing the Commonwealth forces back to the Gazala Line. The Axis push was halted in February, but in May they attacked again in Operation Venice, beginning the Battle of Gazala. Lieutenant Smith and his men were immediately engaged on the east flank by German forces, and put up a strong defense before withdrawing towards El Adem. The Rhodesians took part in a counterattack by the 4th Armoured Brigade which succeeded in taking some ground, but in June the Germans had continued their advance and the Allied forces were in full retreat. Withdrawing into Egypt, the 7th Armoured and the rest of the Allied forces prepared to hold their ground in the First Battle of El Alamein. In July 1942, the Germans and Italians began their attack. Smith's men, entrenched on Ruweisat Ridge, fought off multiple German attacks, holding the position and thereby helping to halt the Axis drive on Alexandria. The Germans launched a second attack at the Battle of Alam el Halfa in late August, but Lieutenant Smith's Rhodesians soundly defeated them again, inflicting heavy casualties and launching numerous small scale counterattacks which caught the Italians and Germans on their flanks. With the failure of their attack, the Axis forces dug in. In the Second Battle of El Alamein, begun in October 1942, the 7th Division attacked as a part of Operation Lightfoot, pushing back the adjacent German and Italian defenders in the face of determined resistance. Halted temporarily by a belt of minefields, the 4th Brigade was transferred to the northern sector of the front and there they continued their attacks throughout November. By the middle of the month, the Rhodesians helped capture Halfaya Pass, sending the Axis forces into full retreat. The 4th Brigade took part in the pursuit, catching up with the Axis in the Battle of El Agheila in December, defeating the Italians but failing to make a decisive encirclement. By February 1943, Lieutenant Smith and his men had arrived at Medenine in Tunisia along with the rest of the British Commonwealth army. In January, they had taken Tripoli and fully pushed the Axis out of Libya and into Tunisian territory. At Medenine, the Rhodesian company dug in north of the city and waited. In March, the Axis forces began Operation Capri, starting the Battle of Medenine. Smith and his men fought back several massed Panzer attacks by the Germans and Italians, inflicting heavy casualties over several hours. The British forces tried to pursue the retreating enemy, but the Germans and Italians managed to fall back behind the well-fortified Mareth Line. The 7th Armoured continued to push, and two weeks after the battle at Medenine they attacked in Operation Pugilist, beginning the Battle of the Mareth Line. The Rhodesians took part in the left flank operation, circling around the Matmata Hills and taking the Tebaga Gap and El Hamma from the Italian defenders. With the Axis forces rapidly retreating, the 7th Armoured pushed on, taking ground from the Axis forces as they advanced through Tunisia. In early May 1943, the Allies began Operation Strike, and Lieutenant Smith and his Rhodesians were some of the first Allied troops to enter the capital city of Tunis, bringing an end to the North African campaign shortly after. The Rhodesians remained in Tunis for nearly a month when Lieutenant Smith recieved a transfer notice. He and his men reported to the 6th South African Armoured Division headquarters in Khataba, Egypt. Smith was then promoted to Captain and instructed to formulate a Rhodesian contingent assigned to the Cape Town Highlanders, a regiment of the 12th Motorised Infantry Brigade. The Rhodesians trained with the South Africans in the Egyptian desert, conducting Exercise Durban in December 1943 in preparation for their deployment to Italy. In April 1944, the 6th Division departed Alexandria for Taranto, Italy. The campaign in Italy had been ongoing for a year by the time the Rhodesians and South Africans arrived. Moving north from Taranto, the 12th Brigade held positions near the front line and were engaging in combat against the Germans by the time that the Allies commenced their fourth and final assault on Monte Cassino. Captain Smith and his men were withdrawn from these positions by the end of May, when they prepared to join the 6th Division in the general offensive. The division attacked up the Via Casalina to reach the Tiber River, with Smith's Rhodesians playing an important part in driving the Germans out of the towns of Orvieto and Chiusi in June. By the end of the month, the Trasmiene Line had been broken and the Allied forces, including the Rhodesians and South Africans, were pushing towards Florence. In late July, Captain Smith led a successful attack on Monte St. Michele, giving the British forces full control over the Chianti Mountains. With the road clear for the drive on Florence, Captain Smith and the rest of the 6th Armoured began to slowly push back the Germans as they advanced on the city. After Florence fell, the Rhodesians crossed the Arno River with the rest of the 12th Brigade and began their assault on the Gothic Line in the Appenine Mountains in Operation Olive. Throughout August and early September 1944, Captain Smith and his men pushed through heavy resistance to reach the town of Bologna. In October, Smith and his company led the charge on Monte Stanco, carrying the mountain positions in fierce fighting. Crossing the Setta Creek, the 12th Brigade took Hill 501 but failed to take Monte Sole, the main objective. After this offensive, the 6th Armoured settled in for the winter. After some time in winter quarters, during which time Smith's men patrolled around the town of Casigno, the Rhodesians and South Africans were relieved and sent to the Allied rear in the town of Lucca in February 1945, before being returned to the line in spring to take part in the final Allied offensive which would decisively defeat the Germans in Italy. Operation Grapeshot began in April 1945, with Smith and the 6th Armoured finally taking Monte Sole and Monte Caprara before driving the Germans out of their fortified positions in the town of San Matteo della Decima. Advancing towards Bologna, the 6th Armoured broke into the Po River Valley, assembling at Treviso by the end of April and moving west towards Milan in May. By May 2, the war in Italy had ended, and just six days later the war in Europe concluded in total Allied victory. For the rest of May, Captain Smith and the Rhodesians were engaged in frontier duties in the Aosta Valley on the border with France. Smith himself took part in occupation duty in Imperia Province until August 1945, when he returned home to Rhodesia. Postwar Smith's distinguished record of service in North Africa and Italy gave him a hero's welcome home to Umtali, as well as several decorations and a promotion to Major. He remained in command of B Company, 1st Battalion, Rhodesia Regiment, garrisoned in Salisbury. Service here was relatively uneventful. In 1951, the Rhodesia Regiment was mobilized to be sent to Korea to aid the United Nations forces against the Communist offensive. Major Smith volunteered and was ready to go, but the deployment was called off by the time the regiment was ready to depart. In 1953, seeing no further need to continue his military service, Richard Smith stepped down in order to focus on his family. Personal life After retirement, Smith settled in Salisbury, finding work as a bank teller. His wife, Helen McCarrie, who he had married in 1948, moved in with him into a modest apartment in Warren Park. Helen gave birth to a son, Alexander Jeffrey Smith, in 1950. Life was quiet in this corner of Salisbury, and political events like the ill-fated Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland had little effect on the family. In 1968, wishing to follow in his father's footsteps, Alex Smith enlisted in the Rhodesian Security Forces, being posted to the Rhodesian Light Infantry. He would be killed in a ZANLA ambush in 1972 during the Rhodesian Bush War (1964-1979). In 1980, the Republic of Zimbabwe was declared, transitioning Rhodesia from white minority to black majority rule. The Smith family had contemplated leaving for some time, and had been ready to emigrate since 1979. Richard and Helen moved to England, settling in Atherton, Greater Manchester, where Helen had family. On November 1, 1999, Richard William Smith died of cardiovascular disease. Views Smith was very much a Rhodesian patriot, due in large part to his military service. He supported Ian Smith's government and the Rhodesian Front party in the 1960s, declaring his opposition to any kind of black majority rule. In 1965, Smith wholeheartedly approved of Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the UK and the British Commonwealth. The death of his son to ZANLA militants in the Bush War only increased Smith's fervor in favor of prosecuting the war at all costs, and he believed that Rhodesia, South Africa, and Portugal had a duty to prevent Africa from falling to Communism. In December 1979, Smith begrudgingly accepted the Lancaster House Agreement as the least worst option. In April 1980, just before Rhodesia's transition, the Smith family packed up and left for the UK. In Britain, Smith would dabble in Conservative Party politics, but mostly remained focused on the progression of Zimbabwe. He thoroughly disliked Robert Mugabe's government and even refused to say the name "Zimbabwe" until his death. Equipment As a soldier of the British Commonwealth during World War II, Smith carried a Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk III bolt-action rifle, an Enfield No.2 Mk I* revolver, and the Mills Bomb M36 fragmentation grenade.Category:Soldiers in World War II Category:Rhodesian soldiers Category:British Commonwealth soldiers